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before

EMILY'S PARENTS WERE lying dead on the gurneys that carried them to the hospital, something she knew the moment she saw their blood-coated bodies. It sent her sick to her stomach and the dinner she ate – the food she was eating while her entire family lied in the snow, helplessly awaiting death – threatened to go up her stomach. She let go of a choked sob, like her voice had disappeared from her like her parents did, and crumbled to her knees.

A groan sounded from another ambulance that had stopped in front of the emergency room, and Emily would know it anywhere. Her little brother had taken a fancy to complaining since he was young – or, well, younger – and the groan that escaped his lips was a sound that Emily was all too familiar with.

It felt like it happened in slow motion, at the same time, feeling like it also went very fast. She rushed to his gurney, desperately trying not to cringe at the way his face visually throbbed and how his elbow was definitely not in the right position, and grabbed his pale hand. "Come on, Will," she begged and tried to keep her eyes open as wide as she could, because it felt to her like it was the last time she'd see her little brother.

She eyed every feature of his face – his badly broken nose that had once been her item of envy, the freckles that peppered itself across his nose and down his cheeks, and his eyes. Those god given eyes that shone brighter than the sun at noon and the moon at night. Will's face had been hardly recognizable but his eyes held the same spark that they had when he smiled.

"Metal, Em," he coughed, then clutched his abdomen in pain. He winced at the feeling of his broken ribcage being moved. "Metal arm. It was crazy."

He was in the middle of a humorless chuckle when he closed his eyes and gave a sigh. Emily knew he wouldn't open them again.

»»

THE MORGUE HAD always given Emily the creeps, now more so than ever. Her family's bodies laid pale and cold in front of her as tears escaped her eyes and dripped onto the floor. Her mother she had loved since birth, one that she occasionally fought and relentlessly argued with, still radiated her beauty.

The plump pink lips usually coated in red that kissed her goodnight on the forehead every night throughout her childhood were pressed onto a thin line, chapped and nearly as white as her skin. The once beautiful vibrant blonde hair that was always so full of life, the hair that Emily pulled playfully as a child, seemed dead, resembling spaghetti before it was soaked in warm water. Scars ran along her prominent cheekbones, and she could see the faint outline of a stab wound in the center of her chest.

Olivia Wright did not die in a car crash.

Emily turned to the man who taught her how to ride a bike, who taught her how to kick a football and how to make and bake pancakes. He had always been so lively, going home late at night but still having time to play with his children. It pained Emily to see him so dead, with the palest skin she's ever seen that strangely reminded her of Edward Cullen's from Twilight. His handsome face was swollen still, nearly ten hours of being cleansed and taken care of was not enough to make it go back to normal, and purpling bruises were spotted through his neck and shoulders. Like on her mother, Emily could see a stab wound on the center of his chest.

Brian Wright did not die in a car crash.

Will did not look better than his parents. His cheeks were sunken in, as though repeatedly punched until the bones broke, and it didn't appear like he had a jaw any longer. Emily could see tiny red scars on his face, almost like they were unintentionally scratched by a sharp metal object. A crushing feeling weighed on her shoulders, seeing her family like that mentally broke her. He did not have a stab wound on his chest, but whatever damage he had received had been enough to kill him.

William Wright did not die in a car crash.

It was utterly idiotic how the hospital insisted that the Wrights had died in a car crash and nothing more. Emily knew just by the looking at them that they were beaten to a pulp and yes, they might have been in a terrible car wreck that could have potentially put their lives in grave danger, but it wasn't enough. Will's words still echoed in Emily's little mind when her aunt arrived to take her in.

"It's okay, Emily," her aunt cooed, rubbing circles on Emily's back in an attempt to soothe her. She didn't dare look at the corpse of her brother, sister-in-law and nephew. She knew that what they had gone through was brutal and she may not have been showing it, but she was devastated.

"Where will I go, Aunt Ariana?" Emily asked softly. Her tears had dried, and she felt like she had cried out all the tears in her body and it left her empty. It left her hollow.

Metal, Em, the words haunted her and played repeatedly in her mind – like it would never disappear. Emily embraced the voice that spoke in her mind. It sounded very much like her little brother, and it might have been the only memory she had left of him. Metal arm. It was crazy.

She knew she would find the person with the metal arm. Emily would find him and avenge her family for being so mercilessly killed.

»»

SHE DIDN'T KNOW why there were more than a hundred people that attended her parents' and brother's funerals. She didn't know if those people knew them like she did. She didn't know if they cared for her family just as much as she did. She highly doubted it; no one would love their parents like a daughter would. No one would love their brothers like a sister would.

Her twelve-year-old frame was clad in black, the lace clinging to her skin and it took all her willpower not to complain on how itchy it was. She had no right to complain, at least she could feel how itchy it was. Her aunt was talking animatedly to the guests, entertaining them as if there weren't three dead bodies in coffins just a few meters away from them.

Emily stood staring at the white dress that her mother wore, glaring at it with every fibre of her being. She knew she would have hated wearing that. It was too extravagant, with the pearls that lined itself on the collar and the lace bodice. She knew that her mother would have preferred wearing a simple white dress that hung elegantly on her frame.

Her aunt didn't even care to ask her if it was alright.

No one dared approach the little girl seething rage, except for a dark skinned man with a suspicious looking eyepatch covering his left eye. Emily inwardly snorted, relating the man to several pirates she watched on the telly. "I'm sorry for your losses," he told her, although she felt like it was not sincere at all.

"How did you know my parents?" she asked bluntly, knowing that a man like this couldn't possibly have known Will without her knowledge. She stared at him openly, eyeing the curve of the frown on his lips and the scars covered by his eyepatch.

He sighed, "Your dad was one of the heads of SHIELD once. He knew the ins and outs of the entire system – found out who the traitors were and exposed them for it. He's still one of the best agents SHIELD ever had. Olivia wasn't affiliated with SHIELD as much – Howard made sure she'd be safe from the dangers of being connected to the organization. But then she fell in love with an agent, and we both know how that went."

"Uncle Howard died nine years ago," Emily deadpanned, barely even remembering her Uncle Howard's goofy personality. He and his wife had died in a car crash similar to her family's, it left their son, Tony, devastated. Although, Emily did see the news of how he became extremely famous and successful and doubted that it bothered him much.

Tony Stark didn't even go to his dead aunt's funeral.

"Yes, well," the man gave out a short laugh. He leaned forward, getting closer to Emily, but looking like he was examining the bodies before him, and muttered, "You are in danger, Miss Wright. Trust no one." He walked away, and Emily gazed curiously at the man with the eyepatch.

»»

From Gabriella —
Hello! Thought it'd be fun to add fun facts for each chapter and idk fam -nataliaromanova told me to copyright this so I guess I am?? My older sister told me to do this and I've adopted it and I plan to do it in all my books so pretty please don't steal it? Thanks my loves! ☺️❤️
Fun Fact: You will notice that Emily's dad's name is Brian – taken from Albus Dumbledore's full name, which is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. You will also notice that his sister's name is Ariana, which is Albus Dumbledore's sister in Harry Potter!